


After The Storm

by TheCrazyFriend



Series: After The Storm [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Crossover, F/F, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2019-08-29 04:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16737010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrazyFriend/pseuds/TheCrazyFriend
Summary: With the coming of the storm, Max and Chloe thought it was all over when in fact it was only just beginningRead After the Storm: prologue before reading





	1. New beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Well here it is the first chapter of my crossover  
> Sorry, I am being forced to write blind. AO3 won't show me previews so I apologize in advance for any formatting errors. It should be fixed now though

“Holy shit!! Who the fuck are you?!” a girl in her early teens had woken up to a burly man shaking her awake  
“Kid, calm the hell down! El, it’s me, Hopper, Jim Hopper, remember? And where did you learn those words?” He looked guilty, “guess it's probably my fault, mine or the curly haired kid, Daniel? Donald? Dustin?”  
_Am I supposed to remember? What the hell is going on?_ The young teen sat on her bed, rubbing the last bit of sleep from her eyes  
“Hey, kid, it’s okay, breakfast’s ready, come on, El. Your favorite is getting cold. Eggos”  
_I haven't had eggos since I was ten, we used to love them_. _Oh my god!! I gotta get back, I left her there_. She found herself beginning to panic “Okay?”  
“Hurry up, El”  
_El? What kinda a name is that? Short for Eleanor? Elizabeth?_ “Coming”  
“Now you know the rules, El? Our don't be stupid rules?” the man, Hopper looked at her expectantly  
_What?! What the hell are these rules, fucking hell what the hell is going on? I gotta explore, that'll hopefully let me find out what happened!!_  
“No need to panic, El, you're not in the lab anymore, you're safe, remember the bad men can't get you and your Papa is gone”  
_You were in a lab? You poor thing. I wonder why, maybe I'll find something here to help me work out why_  
“Kid? El?” She shook her head and Hopper rolled his eyes. “Rule One is always keep the curtains drawn. Rule two is only unlock the door if you hear my secret knock.” Hopper demonstrated by knocking the secret knock to which Eleven nodded “and finally, rule three is never go outside alone, especially not in the daylight.”  
“Sure” she nodded quickly and started eating, _I'll do myself some proper food when he's gone, eggs and bacon. Too early for this mystery shit_  
“See ya later El, I'll check in on the Wheeler kid at some point today.” With that, Hopper left and she moved over to the door and locked it  
“Finally!” Eleven had sighed. _What a lot of locks!_ She moved towards the bathroom and taking a look in the mirror she saw curly brown hair. _Holy shit, the mean beeeatch would piss herself laughing if she knew I was stuck with this hairstyle!! And clothes...!_ She had seen her clothes set out nicely for her, shaking her head she splashed cold water on her face. _Gotta get dressed then maybe I'll be able to find out more about this El girl_. She lifted her wrist to scratch her nose absentmindedly and her eyes fell on her wrist. _Eleven?_ The '011’ tattoo had caught her eye and she stared at it, mesmerized. Reaching out for the mirror as if she was going to shake the girl’s hand, she smiled, _El must be short for Eleven_ , “Well, Eleven, it’s nice to meet you.” _Wonder if this has anything to do with that rewind power...? Anyway I gotta get moving if I want to explore the place_

*****

“Maxine! Wake up already, time for school”  
_Mmmph_. “Piss off!!”  
“Maxine, mind your language, your stepfather doesn't like that kind of language and neither do I!”  
_Oh, piss off mom... Wait!! She doesn’t sound at all like my mom!!_ The girl opened her eyes and found her face was framed perfectly by red hair. She sat bolt upright and looked around at the unfamiliar room in a bit of a panic. _I'm a fucking redhead?! What the fuck is going on? I don't remember a rewind, besides that still wouldn't explain why my fucking hair is orange_. “Fine...” Max reluctantly jumped out of her warm and cozy bed and ran out of her room, taking a wild guess at which room was the bathroom. _Nope, this is a closet_. She took a step back out and ran to the room down the hall, the bathroom door slammed shut behind her  
“MAXINE!!” An unpleasant voice boomed up the stairs, “do not slam the doors! Do not make me come up there!”  
_Oh, joy. The world never runs out of step-douches_

Once Max had showered and dressed, she left her room, looking in a full-length mirror as she walked towards the stairs. _Holy shit, I'm small!!_  
“Good morning, Max” Susan Mayfield called from the kitchen  
_That must be Max's mom_. “Sup?” She didn't really know what else to say to the stranger  
“Maxine, I have told you a million times not. To. Slam. The. Doors!!”  
_Dude, chill_. “It was an accident.” _Kiss my ass_  
“Be more careful next time, Maxine”  
“Ugh. Fine!” _Fuck you too, asshole_

“Time for school, come on” Billy led Max out to his car, interrupting her in the middle of her breakfast   
_Wow... That's a really nice car_  
“Stop ogling at my car, Shitbird and get in will ya”  
_Did this Mullet just call me Shitbird?_ “What's your problem dude?”  
“What?”  
_Don't act fucking stupid with me, Mullet_. Max had decided to give people nicknames until she discovered their real names. “You heard me”  
“Why don't you say it again”  
She advanced on Billy despite her small size, “I don't know what your problem is but once I've worked out what's going on and fixed it I'm gonna come back and kick your fucking ass. In the meantime, go blow your dad you mullet wearing asshole!!”  
“For that...” Billy resisted the urge to strike her as it would have led to a beating from Neil, “You are walking. School’s that way” he indicated, “about a twenty-minute walk, less if you use your skateboard... Oh, whoops, I broke it didn't I?”  
_Cool, the chick’s got a skateboard, just a shame about the hair_. “Screw you” she turned and headed off towards the school. _Here's hoping mullet wasn’t lying to me just to make me look like an idiot_. “Now I gotta find the school... I guess” Max set off walking towards the school

*****

“Time to get the fuck outta here!!” Eleven clambered out of her window and began making her way out of the cabin, seeing the tripwire and stepping over it carefully. _Holy shit, paranoid much! Is the government after this Eleven girl or something?_ Eleven moved through the woods, eventually coming to a small path. “Holy shit” she breathed, walking towards her was a girl with red hair. _She’s pretty_. “Excuse me?”  
“Yeah?” the other girl, Max, asked quietly  
“This is gonna sound really stupid but do you have any idea where we are?”  
“Nope”  
“Well, shit” Eleven held out her hand for Max to shake, “name’s apparently El”  
“El? Short for Eleanor? Elizabeth? God I'll have to call you Eliza if it's Elizabeth”  
“Neither, it's short for Eleven”  
_Weird_. “What kinda name is that?”  
“A weird one, what's yours?”  
“Max” Max took her hand and shook it, “well it's nice meeting you, El, I gotta go to school though”  
“Oh... Good luck”  
“I'm gonna need it” Max began to move away  
“Wait!! Meet me back here after school!” Eleven shouted out at her retreating neck  
“Okay? See you in a few hours, El short for Eleven”


	2. The first morning

“It’s MadMax!!” a boy with a cap exclaimed  
“Uh...” Max stammered, unsure if she should know the boy  
“It’s me, Dustin! Dustin Henderson, yanno...”  
_Obviously, this kid knows Max_. She smiled at Dustin and pretended to recognize him, _whoever the fuck you are you're looking at me creepily_  
“We’re all going to the arcade tonight before we go trick or treating, you fancy coming along? We’re all gonna try to beat your high scores!!”  
_My high scores? Give me an Xbox over this arcade thing any day, what year is it anyway?_ “Uh not tonight, sorry. I have plans”  
“You're still coming trick or treating though, right??”  
_Dude, do you have to be so excitable about every fucking little thing? Jeez, Max should've punched you in the face, I know I want to!!_ “Sure, if you leave me be for awhile”

“Max” a black guy walked up to her and Dustin with a big grin on his face  
_One, he looks like Mikey, and two does this creep have a fucking crush on me? Eww!!_ “Uhhh...”  
“Lucas” Dustin stage whispered, "Max is having a bad day" he added  
“Hey, Lucas...” _So we got hat and not-Mikey, cool_  
“I was wondering if you wanted to join The Party...”  
“She's already said no to me, Lucas”  
“Good! She's not in The Party, she never will be in the party!!” A third boy had joined the two others that were by that time testing Max's patience  
_Christ. It's only half eight..._ “And what's your fucking problem?!” Max hissed at the boy  
“Mike...” Dustin mumbled  
“No! No, no, no! We're not having some skateboarder loser joining our party, nerds only”  
_Did he just call me a loser? A self-proclaimed nerd of all people!_ “Now listen here you fucking short ass kid...!”  
Max had moved forward to grab Mike’s collar and slam him against the locker but was prevented from doing so by an adult stepping out of one of the classrooms. “Maxine!!” he exclaimed, “what on earth?”  
_Oh, for fuck’s sake!_ “He was provoking me, sir” Max whispered. “He called me a loser and told me that he didn't want me in his Party, which isn't a problem, I don't want to be in his stupid Party anyway, I don't want to be in this stupid school or this damned town, I want my old life back!!” Max let go of Mike’s collar and turned on her heel, retreating towards the bathrooms  
“Wow... Sorry, Mike but she’s a total badass!!” Dustin whispered to a shove from Mike  
“I'll... Go talk to her, I'm guessing you three want the keys to the AV room?” Mike nodded and the teacher handed over the keys to him.  
“Thanks, Mr. Clarke” Mike whispered quickly  
“Now go before anyone else finds out about that ruckus.” The three boys hurried off being met by a fourth outside the aforementioned room

“Max? You in here?” Scott Clarke knocked on the girl’s bathroom but stayed outside. “Max?”  
“Go away!!” Max snapped from somewhere within the room  
“Come on Max, you're not in trouble”  
“I wouldn't care even if I was!” Max snapped back.  
“Okay, well take your time. Tell me, I'm curious what would you rather be doing?”  
“Hanging out with my new friend, I met her earlier today, or better yet, have my old life back!”  
“Your life in California?”  
_Shit, I can't tell him the truth, I’d be put in a straightjacket and thrown in a padded room quicker than I could say 'Hella uncool’!_ “I guess”  
“Now why don't you come out of there?”  
“Sure, if you've got some bleach in this hellhole”  
“Bleach, why on earth would you want bleach, Maxine?” He was very concerned by the sudden turn of events. He was considering asking another teacher to call 911 when Max replied from the bathroom.


	3. School days

Max had managed to avoid all contact with Mike for the remainder of the day even though she had seen Lucas, Dustin and a third kid around, a kid whose name she didn't know and if she was honest she didn't really care about though she scoffed at his unfortunate bowl cut. _What a day_ she thought, _I could do with just letting off some fucking steam, fortunately, I've gotten rid of the hair problem now_. She kicked a stone as she left the school grounds, her new partially bleached hair giving her a completely new look and several of the boys were watching her as she left, admiring her hair from a distance. Realizing she had no money she swore quietly to herself, she had planned to find a store on her way back to that lonely path through the woods where she hoped that girl, that adorable curly haired girl would be waiting for her. Moments later she felt a gaze on the back of her head, Max turned and found herself being followed by two of the boys from earlier. “Shit” she mumbled, she was hoping to speak to the 'Eleven’ girl in private and didn't want two bumbling nerds nearby to ruin it. Max had gotten a sense of familiarity from the girl though she could swear on the lives of everyone she had ever cared about that she hadn't ever seen the girl before, she felt as if she could trust her. Max had begun to notice additional things about the... Transformation, she found herself thinking more about her childhood memories and wishing she could return to them, to play pirates with her best friend would be such a joy, especially after all the shit she had gone through before the transformation. Max reasoned that even though she had all her memories, she really was stuck in another girl’s body with their developmental age and maybe discovering crushes for the first time ever? Eventually, her thoughts inevitably turned to her other half. _Where is she? I really hope I didn't leave her all alone with the truck..._

Max stepped into the store, having successfully lost both of the boys who had stalked her. She immediately began looking for some food that she could take to her new friend, the girl had seemed incredibly lonely, self-conscious and a little underweight if Max had been looking at her closely. Of course, she hadn't actually been looking that closely but felt as if her hormones were all fucked up again which they probably were considering. She grinned having seen a newspaper with the date on it, she didn't care for the day or month but she found the year incredibly interesting. “The best bit of being in 1984? There are no security cameras in 1984...!” _Time to raid this store!!_

Having raided the store, Bradley’s Big Buy, for food and smokes Max left in a hurry. She laughed as the fat man who had been tending to other customers tried to chase her but failed and once she was out of sight of the man she slowed to a gentle stroll. _Wish I'd picked up Max's skateboard_. She made quick progress towards the path she had found earlier in the day and once she was on it she leaned up against a large tree, a tree that marked where she had met the other girl. 

Max began to write in a journal she had picked up in the midst of her raid. _'I have no idea what happened to me, I was camping out in the back of the truck with...'_

“I didn't expect you to be a writer, Max,” an innocent voice asked from behind Max  
“Uh, hi, El!!” Max jumped to her feet and quickly shut her journal, “it helps me stay sane, yanno”  
“Mhm, I do I really do” Eleven mumbled  
“I grabbed food for you” Max mumbled, “da dah!!” She pulled out snacks for her new friend while Eleven stared at Max's new hairstyle. “D... Do you like it?” Max stammered nervously  
“It’s certainly unique” Eleven admitted with a small laugh, “come on, I'll take you back to where I woke up”  
_To where you woke up...? That sounds ominous..._ “What do you mean, El?”  
“It'll sound stupidly crazy...”  
“Trust me after the week I had before this, I’d believe anything”  
“What... Do you mean?” _That sounds scary_  
“You wouldn't believe me, El short for Eleven”

They both heard voices in the distance, Max paled slightly and tugged Eleven back off the path. “Shit! It's those boys!” Max hissed angrily  
“Boys, what boys?”  
“Those ones that are friends with that Wheeler kid, the boy I may or may not have been exceptionally close to slamming into some lockers earlier”  
“Wheeler?” Eleven looked at her blankly  
“Yeah, he's an asshole”

Max pulled Eleven away and they hid while the four boys came past. “Are you sure she's still out here, Mike?”  
“She's gotta be, Dustin. Good god, I miss her”  
“We miss her too, Mike”  
“Eleven, where are you?”


	4. Halloween

“You know that kid?” Max hissed to Eleven from where they were hiding from the boys  
Eleven shook her head, “Nope. Never heard of him before you mentioned him”  
“Well, that asshole seems to know you. Fuck, Wheeler, Bowl Cut, Hat, and Lucas are heading this way, let's get outta here!” The four boys had turned back from the direction they had been walking, a path that would have led them away from where Max and Eleven had been hiding and had begun to walk towards the tree that Max and Eleven were hidden behind  
“Eleven?” Mike called while the girls hastily sprinted for another tree to hide behind  
“She's not here, Mike” Hat mumbled  
“Dustin, Has anyone found a body?” Bowl Cut asked quietly  
_Hat is Dustin_  
“No, Will”  
_Bowl Cut is Will, got it_  
“Then she must still be alive...”  
“Unless the bad men got her” the black kid, Lucas mumbled  
“Brenner's dead, Lucas”  
“They were still hunting for her even after his death, Mike”

Max turned to Eleven as the boys’ conversation grew quieter. “Do you have any idea what they were talking about, El?”  
“Sadly not... I fled the cabin the moment the fat man left me, well, after eggs and bacon”  
“The fat man?”  
“Apparently he was called Hopper”  
“Oh. I'm new here too”

Eleven had led Max back to the cabin she had found herself in and turned hastily, remembering something. “Watch out for the...” BANG!! _Too late_  
“What the fuck?!” Max had leaped into the air  
“Tripwire...”  
“Fucking hell that scared the shit outta me”  
“Hopper is apparently hella paranoid, Max”  
“No shit, El”  
“Apparently, Eleven, uh I was in a lab before being here.” She pushed the door open and indicated around. “My home, supposedly”  
“It’s cozy?” Max didn't really know what else to say about the small cramped cabin and certainly had no reply to the revelation that Eleven had been in a lab  
“I guess, I don't really know why I'm here though, I don't remember anything before waking up in bed.” _Yeah, I do remember but you wouldn't believe any of it if I actually told you!_  
“Mhm fair enough, so why don't we start by having a look around this place?” Max suggested and Eleven merely nodded her agreement. Together they both began to look through every part of the small cabin. 

Max had become so engrossed with what she was doing with Eleven that she had forgotten she had tentatively agreed to meet the boys for trick or treating. Looking at the watch on Eleven's wrist she swore quietly and quickly hugged Eleven goodbye. “I'll be back later, El short for Eleven”  
“Promise?”  
“I promise.” With that, Max left through the front door and hurried off  
_I miss you already, Max short for Maxine_

“What the hell are _you_ doing here?!” Mike glared at the girl who had jumped them and made Lucas scream.  
“I could ask you the very same thing!!” Max hissed back, debating whether to smack Wheeler in what she considered to be an ugly mug. Her left hand was holding the Michael Myers mask she had been wearing but her right was free  
“These are _my_ friends!”  
“Then perhaps you should be asking them why I'm here, Wheeler!” Max's eyes narrowed dangerously, “They invited me. Hanging with you isn't the most pleasant way to spend my evening but I gotta get candy”  
“Easy, Mike, it’s just one evening for a few hours”  
“Ruining the best night of the year in the process!!”  
“Screw you too, Wheeler!” Max turned away. “Are you guys coming or not?!” she called over her shoulder

A few hours later and their bags were full of candy and other tasty treats and while Max and Mike hadn’t seen eye to eye they had reluctantly put up with each other. “Will?!” their evening had been halted by the boy Max had come to call Bowl Cut vanishing, something that seemed to terrify the other three. They found him moments later cowering behind a wall. “Will?! Are you okay?” Mike moved closer to the shaking boy, revealing a gentler side to his nature that Max hadn't even realized the boy had.  
“What's wrong with him?” Max asked cautiously  
“None of your business, it's only the party and El!” Mike had exclaimed  
_Overprotective much?_ “El? Who's El?” Max decided to grab the opportunity to find out what she could and to her horror, Mike blushed bright red. _Don't fucking tell me..._  
“A friend” Mike snapped  
“Come on Mike, she's not just a friend to you”  
_Fuck that shit!! El is mine!!_ “You still haven't told me about them”  
“It’s a secret, why are you so interested in her anyway? She moved away last year so it doesn't matter”  
“I'm nosy” Max replied  
“Well get your fucking nose out!”

Mike took Will back to his place while the other boys headed home. Max left the boys behind her, her hatred for the Wheeler boy even more intense than it had been before. “Fuck him” she growled, she would punch him in his mouth before he ever got the chance to touch Eleven. She knocked on the door once she had returned to Eleven's cabin and she opened the door. “Surprise... Candy!” Max held up the bag and smiled at her friend.  
“Come on, we can sit in my room!!”  
“Sure” Max followed her through to the bedroom where they sat on Eleven's bed to eat the candy  
Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. “Who's that?!” Max exclaimed  
“Come on kid, open up” Hopper’s gruff voice called out from the front of the cabin  
“Shit, it’s Hopper!!” Eleven exclaimed as the door opened  
“Kid, why wasn't the door locked?!” Hopper's voice raised to a yell and he stormed into Eleven’s room. “What... The fuck?!” He stopped and stared at Max who hadn’t moved more than an inch regardless of Eleven trying to make her hide.  
“Good evening” Max started snarkily but was cut off by hopper grabbing her arm  
“NO!!” Eleven shrieked, raising her hand. Immediately Hopper flew back through the door and landed next to the couch. “Don't you touch her, fucking asshole!!” Eleven’s nose began to bleed and she immediately dabbed it. “That's not right...” she mumbled, “it shouldn't have thrown him like that... Why... Why can't I...”  
“El?” Max’s face showed fear for the first time, “El, what's wrong?”  
“That's not right... I'm not a telekinetic”


	5. Dawning Realization

“El?” Max looked over at her new friend in confusion while Hopper advanced on the pair and Eleven raised her hand again, more slowly and with deadly purpose.   
“Leave. Now.” Eleven glared at the man and he glared right back at her, the tension between them almost palpable.  
“You know the rules, kid. You can't just invite people in like this!!”  
“Yeah well go fuck yourselfie!!”  
“What did you just say to me?!”  
“El? Why did you say that?”  
“Cos this asshole is pissing me off! He's hella ignorant if he expects me to sit in this gloomy cabin in the middle of nowhere with nobody to keep me company!”  
“So... instead of finding Wheeler or one of the other kids, you go find yet another kid to make friends with and ignore the potential consequences of doing so!” Hopper demanded, his voice still raised  
“Wheeler?! Why the fuck would you want El to hang around with that dickhead?'  
“Because despite his young age, he cares about Eleven and even though I'm still in denial about this whole boyfriend thing, El, he's actually a good kid”  
“Boyfriend?!” Eleven exclaimed. “No no you got it all wrong, I don't want a fucking boyfriend!! I'm a lesbian you cretin!”  
“You're... A lesbian?” Hopper was taken aback and the shock was visible on his face  
“Yeah... I am. And this lesbian is taken!” Eleven spat back  
“Uh... Okay? With Maxine here, I'm guessing?”  
“No!!” they both yelled at the same time. “Go away!!”  
“Fine, fine. I'm going. But if you ever tell anyone, Maxine, I'll kill you myself, understand? El has to stay hidden from the bad men”  
“I don't want Max to be hurt... I swear on my life”

“That was intense” Eleven flopped down onto her bed once Hopper had left. _Thank fuck he's gone now_  
“Are you okay, 'Eleven’?” she asked drawing quotation marks around the name  
“Yeah, sure. You're not Max, are you?”  
“I could be for all you know”  
“but you already said that your name was Max, and you didn't seem sure”  
“Fine, what the hell. But I'm absolutely sure you're not Eleven”  
“What have you that idea?”  
“Oh nothing, just the way you said your name was apparently Eleven”  
“True. I did didn't I?”  
“Then if you're not Eleven, who are you?” Max pondered for a few moments. “Further evidence can be identified by what you said when you threw Hopper back. You said you weren't telekinetic but you weren't surprised that you had powers”  
“Mhm”  
“Furthermore, you objected vehemently to that Wheeler jerkoff being your boyfriend yet that man, Hopper said that he definitely was your boyfriend”  
“Okay, okay, you caught me. But you're not gonna believe where I'm really from, even if I told you”  
“Oh really? I could say the same thing to you”  
“Max? Who are you, really?” Eleven looked over at the other girl sat by her side on Eleven's bed  
“El, who are you?”  
“Here, let me show you” Max had a shit eating grin on her face and her eyes sparkled with anticipation and excitement. Max had it all figured out.


	6. Max and Chloe

“My name is not Eleven, not really. It’s actually Max. Max Caulfield” the curly haired girl whispered timidly.  
“Hmph, that's odd” the redhead still had her shit-eating grin set firmly on he face, “I used to know someone called Max... Anyways, likewise my name isn't really Max, it’s Chloe”  
“Chloe?!” Max exclaimed overly loudly then instinctively lifted her hand to do a rewind  
Chloe grabbed her arm and lowered it, “he's an asshole, and I don't think he heard us” she soothed. Her mind soon turned to more important things, “Chloe Price, Maxipad”  
“Holy fuck!!” Max exclaimed loudly  
“Language, El!” Hopper's gruff voice demanded from the other room  
“Sorry.” _Fuck you, you sound like David_  
“What the hell is going on? I mean it's obvious we’re in the past, what did _you_ do? There's always another David, sadly”  
“I didn't do anything, Chlo” Max had slumped against her childhood friend in relief and stayed where she was. “But what I do know was that I was terrified, being stuck here without my Chlo was the most terrifying thing in the world”  
“Yeah, I was super terrified too, terrified that I’d left you behind by my truck”  
“Do you have any ideas as to what actually happened to us, Chlo?”  
“Not a clue.”  
“Oh, okay. Well, I found out a little about this Eleven girl. She was indeed a lab experiment, according to those files” she pointed to them. “Come look through them with me”  
“Okay”  
“What did you find out about your new body?” Max had sat at the table and was waiting for the other girl to join her while indicating the girl she was with  
“She's called Maxine, bitchin' punk skater chick, minus the tats of course!” Chloe began, “she’s kinda an outlier to those asshole boys. Lucas is the black dude and that creep kept on hitting on me” Chloe’s hands clenched. “Don't worry too much Maxipad, I'm not interested in his pathetic ass. Dustin is the kid with a cap, also a bit of a creep and likes staring at me for stupid amounts of time. Will... There’s something wrong with that boy though I don't know what, kinda reminds me of you and your rewind shit.” She shrugged, “and Wheeler is... Well, Wheeler. A jerkoff.” She made less than subtle hand movements to underline her meaning. “Max's stepbrother is an asshole, her mother seems... Quite passive and I don't know much about her father other than he’s a bit of an asshole.” Chloe looked over at the love of her life. “I'm glad we're here together, I did kinda get scared that you'd be stuck back at the truck”  
“Oh Chloe, I’m okay, I'm here with you and honestly that's all I need. That hairstyle is fucking awesome by the way!!” She grabbed the long bangs that were red at the roots and tips where the rest was bleached blonde  
“What about you, what did you find?” Chloe asked  
“Girl’s name is Eleven, possibly related to Terry Ives who had her daughter stolen from her when her daughter was a baby. If that rings true then her real name is Jane. Either way, she spent her entire life locked up in that Hawkins National laboratory, looks like a fucking creepy place”  
“Let's burn it to the fucking ground”  
“Easy there. Eleven is telekinetic and also has other powers like clairvoyance. She escaped the lab late last year after tearing an interdimensional portal to a creepy-ass shadow dimension”  
“Whoa, badass!”  
“I guess” Max felt apprehension rise  
“So Yoda, make me float!!”  
Max rolled her eyes, “no Chloe, I am not making you float”


	7. Chemistry class

“El, El it's time for bed” Hopper called out to his adopted child, appearing moments later in the doorway  
_Ugh, go the fuck away_ Max groaned, looking over at her redhead companion. “Get lost!” she bellowed, voicing her thoughts to the fat guy  
“El, your friend can stay the night if you want” Hopper replied, attempting to smooth things over with the child he was taking care of  
“Sure. Her name is Max”  
“Nice to meet you, Max. Is that short for Maxine?” Hopper turned to the girl with the funky hairstyle  
“Max, never Maxine” the former redhead snapped at the police chief, gaining an amused smirk from the curly haired girl  
“Okay, okay, kid. Max” Hopper grumbled quietly as he moved back away from Eleven's door and back to the living room

“So... I guess we're keeping up pretenses as far as they’re concerned then?” The young woman who had taken control of Max's body had asked.  
“I don't think it's a good idea to attract attention to ourselves, Max” the woman who had taken over Max's body replied. They had decided to use their real names only when alone.  
“Fuck, this is crazier than jumping through all those different photos to save your stubborn ass, Chlo” The curly-haired girl sighed  
“Preachin’ to the converted, Maxi...pad” Chloe replied with a shit-eating grin  
Max scoffed in irritation. “Fuck. You'll never let that go will you?” She grabbed a few handfuls of candies she had picked up from Chloe's night of trick or treating and looked up to the bleached blonde redhead who scoffed  
“We've known each other almost our entire lives yet you're still such a dork, my love”  
“Fuck you too, Chlobear”  
“Come on we'd better sleep, I guess I have school tomorrow. Another day with the creeps, the freak and the asshole” Chloe slumped over  
“Never thought I'd hear that” Max began in a teasing tone, “Chloe Price going back to school”  
“Well” Chloe blushed, “I'm not gonna be a drunken useless stoner this time through, not now I'm finally reunited with you”  
“Goodnight” Max smiled and the brown eyes of the body she had been thrown back into tried to look into the blue eyes of her best friend, the love of her life but Chloe was already out for the count

*****

The next day, Max woke up to find Chloe had already vanished. “Where’s Chl-Max?” she demanded of the fat man once she had left the relative safety of her room, hastily covering up her almost-mistake. Without her rewind, things would definitely be a lot harder  
“Gone. She's at school, El. What's going on between you two?” Hopper replied  
“What do you mean?” Max tilted her head slightly  
“You two are incredibly touchy-feely, just like you and Wheeler were"  
“We are friends” she snipped back, kinda pissed that Max had been taken from her. _Why the fuck would I be touchy-feely with that Wheeler boy?!_  
“That much I was certain of” Hopper replied. “Well I have work, I can't be late, not again”  
Max held her tongue of all the scathing remarks she knew Chloe would be proud of as the man walked out the door and off toward where he parked his truck.

Taking a deep breath the teen turned tween slumped over herself, Chloe hadn't even woken her to say goodbye before school. A single tear ran down her cheek before she realized something, the body she was in may have been a young girl but she had the mind of an adult, and telekinesis to boot! She would be more than a match for any Wheeler asshole who wanted to steal her from her Chlo!! Standing up she gazed over at the clock, half twelve. That meant that Hopper had the afternoon shift at work and by deduction, she figured out that he wouldn't be back until much later. She had a whole afternoon to herself, maybe she could visit Chloe at school!! “Breakfast first, Max” she scolded herself, trying to imagine Joyce Price’s horrified expression had she skipped a meal.

*****

Chloe hadn’t ever enjoyed school as much as she was enjoying it in the midst of the weird trip to the past both in a chronokinetic sense and in a personal sense. She was using her advanced, nineteen-year-old self’s knowledge to wow _ser_ everyone in her class. Her knowledge of physics, chemistry and math was phenomenal even for a nineteen-year-old and she had the advantage of at least six years of schooling over everyone else in the other subjects, except history. She had learned a painful lesson in that subject when she started talking about the Iraq war and America's part in it... A war that wouldn't take place for another nineteen years. _Fuck, that was a major cock-up on my part_ she acknowledged, hoping against hope that either Max would fix the timeline or that her classmates wouldn't remember her talking about Saddam Hussein or certain events that led up to that conflict’s resurgence a few years later. “Fuck” she hissed in irritation, recalling the screw up that had only occurred the day before, it hadn't yet been enough time for a different drama to happen so she was still getting curious gazes from everyone including her tentative friends, Wheeler’s friends.

Sighing at entering the classroom of a 'safe’ subject, the blonde-redhead girl looked at the board. _Chemistry, my old friend. Have I missed you. The teacher apparently promised we could blow something up today_. With a giddy smile forming at the idea of blowing something up, legally and with permission, Chloe sat down in Max's usual seat right at the back. _Wowser_ Chloe soon scoffed at her usage of Max's vernacular, _I'm speaking more and more like a hippie_. Sure enough, there were screens up by the front of the class, to protect the students from whatever was going to be blown up in their classroom. Dustin and Lucas smiled back at her, in that moment Chloe felt it again, that something weird was going on, and it wasn’t the creepy boys, it wasn't the asshole who was supposedly Eleven’s ex, it wasn't even Eleven, nor the weird turn of events that had thrown her and Max back in time almost thirty years, no something else was going on.  
“Maxine?” The black haired balding teacher called out to her, she didn't recognize him or recall his name.  
“Hm?” she looked up at him  
“Do you want to help me?”  
_Help him...?_ Chloe's mind was a blur before she figured it out. “Help you blow something up!? Hella yes!!” Chloe was suddenly every bit the excitable thirteen year old she was meant to be, childish joy built up and she even skipped to the front of the classroom, skipping was something she hadn't done for a very long time, it didn't fit in with her punk persona after all. Wheeler, the creeps and Will the Zombie Boy watched her with their eyebrows raised incredulously. Resisting the urge to give them the finger in case she wasn’t allowed to take part in the experiment, she busied herself helping the teacher, Mr. Clarke, according to Dustin the cap-wearing creep.

*****

**BANG!!** The mixture of Cesium and water caused a loud resounding explosion to echo around the classroom as the plastic container was torn apart by the explosion. Chloe had been the one to drop the metal into the water before running like hell to the other side of the classroom. “Does anyone know why Cesium reacts so violently with water?” Mr. Clarke asked, expecting that nobody would be able to answer his question  
“It tears the water apart to make Cesium hydroxide and hydrogen gas thanks mainly to the nature of how the metal reacts with the water. Cesium creates a large surface area within a very small period of time which then all reacts at once, causing the explosion” It was spoken with absolute conviction despite not even Mr. Clarke being aware of that explanation, it was only 1983 after all

Silence. Complete silence. Wheeler just blinked and the other three boys' mouths fell open. Chloe looked over at them smugly while the teacher attempted to recover from the complete shock of Chloe's knowledge of chemistry  
“I-I think that's enough for today” Mr. Clarke finally spoke after a few moments of stunned silence. “Max, would you stay behind for a few moments, I’d like to get you onto fast track chemistry”  
_Clarke didn't know any of that!! **Result!!**_

*****

“So...” Chloe had left the classroom and had joined Wheeler and his nerd friends at lunch. “Who here isn't a nerd?” _Suck on that you little pseudo-nerd dickheads. Compared to Max, Steph, Mikey and I you bring shame to the word nerd._ Chloe grinned at the four boys. “Suck on that, Wheeler” she stated coldly, standing up and moving away  
“What just happened?” Wheeler asked the others quietly as Chloe moved away, a middle finger raise proudly over her shoulder. He knew it was aimed mainly at him though he couldn't work out why she hated him as much as she did, admittedly he hadn’t been very nice to her but to be treated with utmost contempt?


	8. Hawkins Middle School

Max had snuck out, stepping over the recently repaired tripwire to head out into the wider world. _I wonder how Chlo is doing at school?_ Fifteen minutes later the tween was stood a short distance from a girl and her mom. Approaching them cautiously, she coughed to get their attention. “Where's the school? My best friend Chloe goes there” _Probably better to use her real name to hide her identity_ Max thought to herself  
“Uh 'bout a mile that way” the woman provided as she pointed. Max turned around, ignoring the woman's questions about where her parents were and absentmindedly flicking her wrist to create a diversion though subconsciously she was still attempting to rewind. The swing seat wrapped itself around the frame without any physical interaction from Max, the little girl or the woman, freaking the latter out.  
_I can't say that technically he's not my parent yet..._ Max was thinking of how Hopper wasn’t El’s father but had presumably saved her from the cold and a life on the streets. The girl disappeared off back into the wood and away from the freaked out woman who had grabbed her daughter and held her behind her as she rushed off to find a telephone. 

Max was heading for the school which she eventually stumbled across, first the high school came into sight and the girl couldn't help but chuckle, it wasn't that long ago that she was a senior in high school and despite the many problems that existed within those walls; Wells, Jefferson, Prescott, Prescott's father, Victoria, Jefferson again, she couldn't help but accept that Blackwell was far more _awesome_ than that high school she was walking past, _a piece of shit_ she had concluded within a few moments of observing the school. She walked past a man with a mullet that was complaining loudly that his sister hadn't shown up, again and toward the middle school. Max entered as a teacher left the school which saved her from having to request access with the buzzer. She nodded at the teacher as he walked past her.  
“Good afternoon” he smiled at her with the practiced patience of an experienced teacher  
“Hey” Max quickly rushed off before he could ask further questions of the girl, evidenced by the man's raised eyebrows. She didn't know what he was going to all and if she was being truthful with herself, she didn't want to risk finding out, at least not without her rewind power. 

Max strolled aimlessly around the school, which was bigger than she had anticipated while wondering where the classroom of the former blunette who was inhabiting Max would be. Max hurried out of sight as the semi-familiar form of Lucas hurried toward her. Having based most of her knowledge on how the boys looked off of things that Chloe had told her, she wasn't sure if the boy heading her way was Lucas or not but she couldn't risk being seen either way since El was presumably hidden all the way out there in the woods for a reason, those so-called bad men who maybe worked at that lab and who had been responsible for Will’s disappearence and the gate were the most likely explanation, that and Hopper suspected that El had a thing for Wheeler. _Eww_. Ducking back into a closet, the brunette girl shivered as the boy met up with another boy after yelling to get his attention. She heard them talking about the boy called Will's latest episode and Max's curious mind led her to eavesdrop on the two boys. _What the hell is going on there? Lucas and Cap... oh yea, Dustin are talking about Will's latest 'episode’. Chlo hasn’t mentioned any of that so she doesn't know. They're supposed to be her friends yet keep secrets from her?_

By the time Max had finished her curious internal monologue, Dustin and Lucas had hurried off to search for someone called Dart. Cautiously, she removed herself from the closet and headed down a hallway that she didn't recognize at all though her body seemed to know where it was going. It was at the end of that particular hallway that she had heard voices, one familiar and one unfamiliar. “Come on, you know you're impressed” the familiar voice spoke  
_Chlo..._ Max's face lit up and she ran forward toward the doorway, stopping by the entrance to a gym hall to observe since Chloe clearly wasn't alone  
“I don't see any tricks” the unfamiliar male voice grumbled, glaring at the redhead Max had been looking for.  
_The fuck?! Get away from my girl!_ Max was overwhelmed by concern for her best friend and girlfriend, her eyes narrowing at the boy who appeared to be mad with her best friend. Her mind's eye took her back rapidly to the last time she had seen that kind of look on a boys face. Nathan, who had attacked her, beaten the shit out of Warren _and_ killed Chloe. Almost instinctively, her hand had risen and she found herself shoving out with all the might behind her mind power, her telekinesis. Mike was suddenly hit on the ankles by the skateboard Max had dismounted a few seconds beforehand, the impact had enough force behind it to knock Mike off his feet but not quite enough force to fracture the boy’s ankle. Max wouldn't have minded but that would most likely have resulted in Chloe getting into trouble since she was the only one in the room  
“What the?!” Mike yelped as his feet were knocked out from under him and he fell to the floor, sprawling slightly. Chloe suppressed a slight giggle, raising her hand to hide her mouth. “Ouch...” he groaned  
“Are you alright?” Chloe asked quickly, trying desperately to hide her amusement  
“Yea, yea. I think so” Mike was pouting, a look that Max thought was cute on Chloe yet pathetic on Wheeler  
“It was like... A magnet... Pulling on” Chloe stopped and looked over toward the door where she caught sight of a whirl of curly brunette hair, “My board” the redhead stopped speaking as Mike ran toward the door. Chuckling, Chloe shook her head and walked to fetch her skateboard while Mike ran around searching for the source of the strange occurrence, both of them knew who was responsible but Max didn't want him to know Chloe knew about her. Max meanwhile had already disappeared off back toward the exit of the school having been reassured that Chloe was okay and that she wasn't taking any of the boy’s bullshit. She would have to relay to Chloe the stuff she had overheard from Lucas and Dustin of course, but she trusted Chloe to handle it without hurting the boys _too badly_

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave feedback!!


End file.
